Defense asserts no conspiracy in closing arguments in KCK Boilermakers trial
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Defense argued the government failed to prove a RICO conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt.
- Prosecutors allege defendants spent union funds on no‑show jobs, luxury travel, dining.
- Judge Daniel Crabtree acquitted McManamon on the racketeering conspiracy charge.
Monday afternoon was story time for jurors during closing arguments on Day 20 of the Boilermakers racketeering conspiracy trial in Kansas City, Kansas.
Pat McInerney, attorney for the union’s former International President Newton Jones, said that when he was growing up, the kids in his neighborhood would get together and play kickball. And every time they played, he said, one of the boys would come up with a new rule for the game.
“Now, we’re a long way from the park,” McInerney told jurors. “This time, my client’s life hangs in the balance. And the government wants to make up the rules.
“Made up rules, very little evidence, and just a theory.”
The fate of four former Boilermakers charged with embezzling millions from their Kansas City-based union should be in jurors’ hands by Tuesday afternoon in the trial that’s now in its fifth week. The defendants are accused of conspiring to spend union money on salaries and benefits for no-show jobs, luxury international travel, fine dining, vacation payouts and unauthorized loans.
Closing arguments ran all day Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas and are expected to wrap up by lunchtime on Tuesday.
Jones, 72 — who was removed from office by his executive council in 2023 for allegedly misusing union funds — his wife, Kateryna, 33; ex-International Secretary-Treasurer William Creeden, 78; and former International Vice President Lawrence McManamon, 78, are among seven former union members indicted in August 2024 for conspiracy to commit offenses under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as other felonies.
The racketeering conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
On Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree acquitted McManamon on the racketeering conspiracy charge on the grounds that the evidence against him was insufficient to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Several embezzlement counts against McManamon remain.
Three others charged in the case have already pleaded guilty. Warren Fairley — who briefly took over as Boilermakers president in 2023 after Jones was removed — and Jones’ son, Cullen Jones, pleaded guilty in March to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of embezzlement from a labor organization. Both are scheduled to be sentenced June 30.
Kathy Stapp, who became the union’s International Secretary-Treasurer after Creeden resigned in 2023, pleaded guilty in December 2024 to one count of racketeering conspiracy. Her sentencing is scheduled for July 7.
And in a related case, another former union executive, Tyler Brown, pleaded guilty in May 2024 to one count of racketeering conspiracy. Brown, who served as the union’s chief of staff and as special assistant to Jones, was accused of scheming with “others known and unknown” to steal from the union. His sentencing is also scheduled for July 7.
Fairley, Stapp and Brown testified for the government during the trial.
What is a conspiracy?
In his 90-minute closing argument Monday, McInerney told jurors that the RICO conspiracy “is the center of gravity in this case.”
According to the jury instructions, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to accomplish an unlawful purpose, he said. Each person must have known about the conspiracy and intended to be a part of it.
The jury instructions state that the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a conspiracy existed to which the defendant knowingly belonged and that the acts were committed in furtherance of that conspiracy during the defendant’s membership in it.
But McInerney said none of the actions described by the government’s top three witnesses fit the definition of a conspiracy. Fairley said what he did was “inappropriate;” Brown said there was no agreement to be a racketeer; and Stapp never said when she joined the conspiracy or what the acts were that they agreed to commit, McInerney said.
Stapp also changed her story after prosecutors told her there would be no plea deal unless she said she was involved in criminal activity, he said.
Even Jeremy Newman, the lead investigator for the government, said he didn’t know when the conspiracy started, McInerney said.
“Nobody can say when the agreement occurred, what the agreement was,” he said. “That’s the best the government can do. There was no conspiracy at all.”
All the government showed, McInerney said, was that a lot of people attended the same conferences, the same meetings and the same events. The government revealed no text messages, emails, phone calls, secret accounts, hush money or payoffs, he said. No fake documents, false statements or secret meetings.
Everything the defendants did, McInerney said, was transparent. Meetings held overseas were published in The Boilermaker Reporter, the union’s quarterly publication, and actions were reported and reviewed by legal counsel. Moreover, he said, a Department of Labor investigator testified that no rules exist regarding union travel, hotel expenses, or items like taking cabs or Ubers.
“How are they supposed to know?” McInerney asked. “Nobody has any rules.”
He said the testimony of Fairley, Stapp and Brown, who made plea deals with the government, couldn’t be trusted.
“They’re not here because they had some sort of epiphany,” he said, adding that none of them had found Jesus.
“They found the Justice Department.”
Their testimony, McInerney said, was to help them get lighter sentences.
Government hid facts, defense says
He told jurors that the government hid some facts from them. One example, he said, was Count 12 of the federal indictment, alleging that the union paid for a trip to New Zealand taken by Newton Jones’ daughter, Shae, and her boyfriend — later husband — Derek Zurowski.
But Newton Jones reimbursed the union for that expense, saying he’d been in a hurry to book the trip and accidentally charged it on the wrong credit card, McInerney said.
“Where’s Count 12 now?” he asked. “It’s gone. Because they got caught.
“What else? What else did we not catch them on?”
McInerney said Blake & Uhlig, the union’s former general counsel, didn’t raise questions about the number of trips union leaders made or whether too many people participated.
Even some of the government’s witnesses, he said, testified that the international travel to conferences was valuable in building good relationships that benefited the union and saved jobs. And he said annual audits by an independent firm that examined the expenses and salaries found the union to be compliant.
If members disagreed with the way things were being run, McInerney said, the union had rules on how to handle the issue.
“The union had the authority to deal with the situation, and they did,” he said, referring to the executive council’s ouster of Newton Jones for allegedly misusing money for his personal gain.
But that wasn’t good enough for the Justice Department, McInerney said.
“After the union had dealt with Mr. Jones in the way the union thought he should be dealt with, the government shows up,” he said.
Does the union now have to play “Mother May I” with the Justice Department? he asked.
The government decided they had a RICO case, McInerney said, “and nothing was going to get in the way.”
“And they’re still sticking with this theory,” he told jurors. “I think you know what the verdict must be.”
No proof of ‘Jones Enterprise,’ Creeden attorneys say
Creeden’s attorney, Andino Reynal, told jurors the evidence showed that “the government put on a pair of dirty glasses.”
He focused much of his hour-and-a half closing argument on what he said were reasonable doubts in the government’s case.
Is it possible, Reynal said, that Creeden believed Jones had the authority to do what he did? Then that’s a reasonable doubt. “It doesn’t matter how small the ‘maybe’ is,” he said.
“Ask yourselves — has the government ruled out the reasonable doubt? Have they ruled out the reasonable alternatives?”
The “golden thread” woven through the entire case, Reynal said, is the instruction to the jury that an honest mistake in judgment does not rise to the level of criminal conduct.
He wrote on an easel in front of the jury: “Honest belief even if wrong = RD (reasonable doubt).”
If Creeden had an honest belief that he was just doing his job, Reynal said, “it is your duty to find him not guilty on every charge of the indictment.”
Reynal said Creeden followed the union’s policies, procedures and practices, supported compliance, accurately reported all expenses in its annual reports to the government and IRS and met with prosecutors, answered their questions and produced records when asked.
Reynal also addressed the embezzlement charge related to Creeden receiving $413,000 in vacation payouts for the period from 2019 to 2023.
“It’s a big number,” he said. “So what’s the story?”
Vacation is an accrued benefit, he said, and Creeden worked for the union for more than 40 years.
“You can’t steal what’s yours,” he said.
Creeden’s attorney Kurt Kerns said the government went too far in charging the defendants with racketeering conspiracy.
“There’s zero proof of a Jones Enterprise,” he said. “None.”
As for the allegations of excessive expenditures, he said: “It’s a little ironic that the federal government is having some moral indignation about spending.”
Attorneys for Kateryna Jones and McManamon will present their closing arguments on Tuesday.
